As we quickly approach the fourth anniversary of Apple's iTunes Store, rumors …

Rhapsody, Yahoo!, Napster, Urge. All of these services have two things in common: they all offer music subscription services, and they all play second fiddle to Apple's iTunes Store. There is very little argument that Apple has, by far, the most popular digital music store on the planet. While some services offer the choice of "renting" your music or buying, the Apple store gives consumers half the options and continues to succeed. According to a recent article at CNN Money, though, your choices may double soon.

Citing Les Ottolenghi, the CEO of INTENT MediaWorks, the article claims that an Apple iTunes subscription service is on its way. Ottolenhi says that he has met with Apple on more then one occasion and that he feels Apple will make an announcement of a subscription service in the next six months.

Some may argue that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" which would seem to apply to Apple in this instance. Why would they add such an option when they are already doing so well with their current offering? Well, according to Phil Leigh, a senior analyst for Inside Digital Media, the reason why subscription services aren't popular is because Apple doesn't offer them:

The number one factor retarding the acceptance of the subscription model is the dominance of Apple. The idea of subscribing to music is new to most consumers so when the dominant player doesn't talk about it, the idea seems out of the mainstream for most consumers.

If this is the case it, seems the answer to the question "If they offer it will they rent?" is "yes." But is this really the case? Since Apple has always been big on the whole "you own this music" angle and they've been bragging about shedding DRM lately (thanks mostly to EMI's efforts), selling subscription services hardly seems like the behavior of a company that is about to offer DRM-laden rental music. Then again, as long as they offer it alongside the buy-to-own model, then I suppose everyone could be happy. The question is: if they were to do it, when?